What percentage of high school Aspies are undiagnosed?

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Hello WP,

First, this thread really encapsulates two separate but loosely related topics, so the thread title is a little deceiving:
(tl;dr)
Topic 1: Is my anger about autism diagnosis (or person suspecting it) common? Is it normal to embrace denial of the condition's existence?
Topic 2: What is the proportion of people with autism are not diagnosed who are currently in high school? [Obviously those who are older would be undiagnosed due to the condition not being a spectrum, so this pertains to those growing up in the DSM IV/V days).

Sub-question: Does high intelligence predispose someone to being more autistic, or is it that only high-intelligence autists are allowed in the general school population [i.e. not special ed?]


Topic 1:
I first heard that I might have autism by an autistic kid who said he thought I might have it(specifically Aspies). I was very sad and quite angry about it. The more I read about the disorder, the more I thought he might be right. Furthermore, I learned that my kindergarten teacher suspected I had autism as well(I still to this day thank the Lord that I was not informed of this earlier at a point which could have been more socially damaging), further cementing my suspicions.

Granted, I have a milder version - have plenty of friends, a drivers license, high grades/SAT scores, and am involved in a lot of extracurricular activities, but I still suffer from somewhat impaired reading of social cues (just fine w/ facial expressions, not as much w/ body language), have some noticeable "tick," stim somewhat, have a strong interest in politics, can act socially awkward, never had a girlfriend(am in 12th grade), and rock back/forth in my chair, so I probably am at least borderline for the disorder.


My reaction seems different than others about it. Instead of relief, I wished the classification didn't exist. I developed a vendetta against psychiatrists, thinking of them as agents of "godless leftism" who want to ruin people's lives through these labels, as irrational as it may seem. To me, this kid's pronouncements hurt, and I still have feelings of revenge against him. How I long for the days of normalcy. To me, the stigma of the label "Aspie" was armor-piercing. I longed for evidence that autism didn't exist(especially Asperger's), and decided that people like Michael Savage and Sharon Angle were more knowledgeable about the disorder than actual psychologists.

My question is basically if others had similar experiences upon learning of the disorder. I am curious to hear others' circumstances regarding their diagnosis or "Hey! You might have this" moments. I think the variation in attitude about this subject is awfully fascinating.

Here's the other part(Topic 2), and you'll see the connection. A lot of kids I know in the "Honors/AP" track in high school [especially those in math/science extracurriculars] have vaguely autistic symptoms as well, and this same autistic kid (who, as I earlier noted, I unfortunately despise) said that 4 other people also had autism at my school, all of which at my lunch table, probably had high-functioning autism as well. A lot of people in those honors classes have poor understanding of cues, don't have a girlfriend, are socially awkward, and have intense interests. None of them are diagnosed (and neither am I). So this begs a question.........what percent of people with autism are undiagnosed? If my school is any indicator, the number would be 80% minimum, probably closer to 90%. I am curious what other WPers' opinions are about this.

I think that you are describing people with some mild autistic traits commonly found in general population.
In a diagnostic assessment, most of them would not be diagnosed with autism.
In my research tasks, most of them would cluster with neurotypical people who don't appear to have autistic traits.

I dunno, it's guess it's probably possible to slip thru the cracks if you didn't have any significant academic or behavioral issues that effected your schooling. I did and that was the biggest reason why I got diagnosed.

I think you should maybe try and see it from another way like maybe in not such a negative light, if you 'despise' a kid just for pointing out they think it's likely you might have traits or be on the spectrum...or do you despise them because you are afraid they are right and you don't want to be like 'them'. When I was diagnosed I didn't really feel there was anything evil about the 'label' or wish it didn't exist as it did explain a lot....however since then I would say I would like for there to be less stigma and ignorance about it, and thus perhaps being more accepted and not treated like crap for differences, but who knows if that is going to happen.

I am 25 though, been out of public school for quite a while...pretty glad to. But I don't think its nessisarily uncommon for people to find out things about themselves they don't particularly wish to and a period of denial...but you're not going to find evidence the spectrum does not exist. But have you even been formally diagnosed? If not then its not really an official thing anyways so no need to worry about it unless it's causing you significant trouble.

If you aren't significantly impaired (in a domain such as social/work) and requiring a level of support, a diagnosis shouldn't be given. Autism stretches out into BAP and then into the typical population.

I find it distasteful when an individual parades their diagnostic labels around as part of their identity. It makes me doubt that their presented problems are actually what they claim, and rather an issue relating to a lack of attention/care or perhaps hypochondria.

Generally, people who actually have disorders do not seem to talk about them, or if they are to talk about them (on forums such as this), they rarely allude to or mention any relevant characteristics they may have unless relevant or specifically asked.

my diagnosed aspie nephew didn't get diagnosed until he flunked college, so he was undiagnosed in high school.

Yes, that's a completely natural reaction. I used to feel that way to (not when I was first diagnosed, as then I had no idea what aspergers even was and was furious for other reason), but once I began to get an idea of what it meant and how people saw it, I was enraged. I actually continued to feel that way until I saw My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, where I then began to see it from a more positive light.

As for what proportion, I have no idea, you can't get exact measurements on how many people are undiagnosed for obvious reasons.

Sorry if I made this come off the wrong way. I just wanted to use this experience as a springboard for discussion.

The thing about "impairment" is that it's very subjective. The 2 people who are autistic at our school seem awfully similar to a lot of non-autists at the school and hardly are "obviously impaired." That's where the confusion came from.

When I was in my early-mid teens (about 12 to 15), I denied my own diagnosis, partly because I discovered that Asperger's had a bad rep on the Internet (on sites like ED, Uncyclopedia, 4chan, etc.), and partly because I was resentful of the teachers at school treating me differently than the other students. It wasn't until I was 16-17 that I had done more reading online, realized that my day-to-day problems were consistant with Aspergers (particularly my sensory issues), and came to terms with my diagnosis.

I was originally diagnosed at around 5 1/2-6 years of age, and I was OK with it at the time, but when the tween years hit and I started feeling things like peer pressure and the urge to be "cool", that's when I started questioning things more.

I'm strange in that I started out as more of a "classical autist" until I was about 5 1/2, but around that age, just months before I turned 6, I made huge leaps and bounds, and now, I'm nearly NT in some ways. I'm still fairly aspie in others though.

I actually have disorders and I do talk about them, not in every situation but yeah it certainly does come up. Also though if one has autism it is part of their identity...since it is part of what shapes the persons personality, of course no need to parade it around but it effects how the brain works and perception of the world so it is kind of intertwined in the identity of an individual who has it.

People just want to be apart of some special group and this time the chose Autism. They read up on the positives to see that they are very convenient. So, they go parading it around like it is some special gift where as someone with problems get shunned even more. This will continue until the people with the actual problem gets shunned by the attention seekers as they just make their group look bad.

The statistic you're asking for is non-existent. The ONLY way you could possibly get even semi-accurate results would be to take a sample of high school students (you'd need at least 500 if you want any degree of accuracy), filter out any diagnosed aspies and then test each and every one of them for AS. Then take the number of 'new' aspies, multiply by 100... divide by total aspies new and old... there's your percentage. No one calculates this stuff so the answer to your question would be speculation.

Nothing I say concerns the individual, only a general group, and it's entirely my unrefined observations.

I could clarify by saying that I notice individuals whom I suspect should/would not actually be diagnosed with a disorder to be those that mention their characteristics unprovoked. This expression of identity seems to be stronger for individuals that are insecure with their 'diagnoses'.

For example:

. A person that continuously publicly announces that the lights are too bright or the sounds are too loud, randomly mentions movements that resemble stimming, and/or has a general, sudden change in behaviour relating to their new-found identity, would be a person that I would be suspicious of. Of course, many have a more conscious control over their presenting this way, but I still find it to be quite an obvious pattern regardless.

People that do this clearly want their identity to be recognized by others, and the inference can thus be made that they are deprived of attention (and thus likely have a mood disorder, or typical problems). This need for acceptance is common amongst outcasts, but quite odd especially for a person with actual autism due to the lacking of social cognition.

Autistic people that I have known in real life have never had such control over their social presentation. While they wanted to be liked, they never once intentionally gave off impressions (manipulation).

I don't confront those that do this because they should receive support for their emotional/identity problems.

Something I'm going to point out is that people tend to subconsciously exaggerate autistic traits when they think about them, so it might not be intentional manipulation, just thinking about those traits, maybe because they were reading about autism recently. Also, people with aspergers don't completely lack social cognition, so they can still attempt to be manipulative, but are just bad at it. Trying to be manipulative by broadcasting autistic traits reeks of poor social understanding in most cases.

You could make a ballpark guesstimate.

In my day the number of HS kids with aspergers who got dx'd was zero, and the ones missed were 100 percent! This was because aspergers was not a recognized condition until 1994. And even after 1994 even most shrinks (let alone parents, and school administrators and faculty) never heard of the condition for another decade. So aspie highschoolers were ALWAYS missed prior to 1994, and maybe less than ten percent were officially recognized in the period from 1994 to 2004.

Today its probably about 50-50. Half of aspies get diagnosed as such by HS, and about half don't.

The question is "why do you ask"?

Do you want the number of invisible aspie highschoolers to be large? Or small? You seem to want it to be large. Large perhaps to make yourself seem more normal?

You probably have good news- that the aspies who are officially diagnosed by HS are only maybe half of the true number. And alot nerdy science types arent just "NTs with aspie traits", but are in fact true aspies.

In real life, I can understand a subconscious exaggeration of autistic traits but that technically is an attempt to fit an identity that the diagnostic label imposes. That's human nature; it's unavoidable to seek that which removes pain and provides pleasure. I do believe there is a point however where this attempt becomes pathological, rather than an innocent learning of the condition. When this is the case, it seems appropriate to me that the individual be treated for anxiety or whatever is causing them a great lack of self-confidence, because that would be their primary issue.

It is mostly obvious online, where a person has complete conscious control over what they post. If somebody is constantly preaching 'I can't tolerate light' without being prompted directly that suggests to me a subtle attempt at manipulation, whether malicious or not (it most likely is not).